BleepingComputer.com: Tips and Tricks for Windows

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Untold Windows Tips and Secrets By Ankit Fadia
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This time I have a collection of Tips and Tricks which no body normally knows, the secrets which Microsoft is afraid to tell the people, the information which you will seldom find all gathered up and arranged in a single file. To fully reap this Manual you need to have a basic understanding of the Windows Registry, as almost all the Tricks and Tips involve this file.

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Important Note: Before you read on, you need to keep one thing in mind. Whenever you make changes to the Windows Registry you need to Refresh it before the changes take place. Simply press F5 to refresh the registry and enable the changes. If this does not work Restart your system.

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Exiting Windows the Cool and Quick Way

Normally it takes a hell lot of time just Shutting down Windows, you have to move your mouse to the Start Button, click on it, move it again over Shut Down, click, then move it over the necessary option and click, then move the cursor over the OK button and once again (you guessed it) click.This whole process can be shortened by creating shortcuts on the Desktop which will shut down Windows at the click of a button. Start by creating a new shortcut( right click and select New> Shortcut). Then in the command line box, type (without the quotes.)

'C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindowsexec'

This Shortcut on clicking will restart Windows immediately without any Warning. To create a Shortcut to Restarting Windows, type the following in the Command Line box:

'c:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows'

This Shortcut on clicking will shut down Windows immediately without any Warning.

There's always a chance of messing something up when you go into the registry.

Best advice when dealing with the registry:
If you don't know exactly what you're doing, STAY OUT!!

Alpha_Blue wrote:
Question: Sometimes I just push the button until the comp goes off-is this bad/does it delete memory or wear down the comp?
Also, is that command secret thing bad for memory too?


This IS bad, VERY VERY BAD DONT DO IT!

When windows is in use, an example of why it would be bad is its feature called delayed write. Recently saved a file? It isnt placed to disk when you ask it, it is queued for later I guess this would be interupted if killed violently with your old fashed shutdown technique!

Files are open, the system is writing to the disk, .. something will go wrong.

An example would be, while booting up pull power out.

Start up again and pull power out during startup.

I could corrupt files like this on my old 486, io.sys would get hammered mostly and cause the system to no longer boot. This will happen to modern PCs too.

(discovered when trying to perform some maintenance task needing sudden reboots, Overclocking p3's would be a good example)